Piston ring



June 17, 1952 ERNEST 2,600,745

PISTON RING Original Filed Nov. 24. 1945 1 35 Ear g g x Arroe/vsy.

Patented June 17, 1952 PISTON RING Fred Ernest, LosAngeles, Califassignor to Guy H. Hall, Los Angeles, Calif.

Original application NovemberM, 1945, Serial No.

now Patent No.

Divided and this application October 2,551,878, dated May 23, 1350.,Serial No. 191,690

4 Claims. (01. 309-44) This invention relates to piston rings, andespecially to such rings as are adapted to be used in internalcombustion engines.

This application is a division of an application filed on November 24,1945, under Serial No. 630,629, now Patent No. 2,551,878, May 8, 1951,and entitled Piston Ring.

Piston rings employed in such engines often accumulate carbon; and, whenused as an oil ring, the oil passages connecting the interior of thepiston with the ring channel may be clogged with a carbon deposit. Theaccretion of carbon may be prevented by the aid of an auxiliary floateror scavenger ring, operating in an annular recess formed in'the mainring, and, having limited freedom of movement in a direction axially ofthe ring. Such a structure is illustrated and described in said priorapplication.

It is one of the objects of this invention to provide other forms ofsuch piston rings, and especially by the aid of tapered surfaces thatimprove the capability of the ring to reduce accretion of carbon evenupon continued wear of the ring.

This invention possesses many other advantages, and has other objectswhich may be made more clearly apparent from a consideration of severalembodiments of the invention. For this purpose there are shown a fewforms in the drawings accompanying and forming part of the presentspecification. These forms will now be described in detail, illustratingthe general principles of the invention; but it is to be understood thatthis detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, sincethe scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary sectional view, illustrating a ring structureincorporating the invention;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of a complete ring assembly,portions of the structure being broken away;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view, taken along a plane corresponding to line3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a pictorial view of a portion of the ring structure shown inFig. 1; and

Figs. 5 and 6 are views, similar to Fig. l, of modified forms of theinvention.

A fragmentary portion of a cylinder wall I and a corresponding piston '2are illustrated in Fig. 1. Contacting the cylinder wall I is anexpanding ring 3, disposed in a groove 4 in the periphery of the piston2. This ring may be of the usual compression type, having ends thatpermit it to expand into contact with the wall I.

Below groove 4 there is another groove 5. In this groove 5 a piston ringstructure is shown, including a main piston ring member 6 (Figs. 1, 2,3, and 4). preferably formed of cast iron, and slit, as indicated byreference character 'I in Fig. 2, in order to permit expansion of thering into contact with the wall l. The recess or groove 5 communicateswith oil passages 8 in piston 2-, leading to the interior thereof.

The main ring member 6 is provided with an upper flange 9 and lowerflange I0 defining a groove II. These flanges 9 and III are joinedtogether by a series of spaced posts or struts I2 defining slots I13.Furthermore, the flanges 9 and IE1 slope, or are tapered, to cause thegroove II to diverge toward the periphery of thering structure 6 (-seeFig. 4).

Disposed in the groove orrecess II- is an auxiliary or supplemental ringmember I4. This ring member I4 is symmetrically tapered to form top andbottom surfaces that diverge toward the periphery of the ring structure6. The ring member I4 is also provided with recesses I5 (Fig. 3),forming intervening projections II disposed in slots I3 formed betweenthe posts or struts I2.

The width of the ring I4 is substantially less than the width of thegroove II. Accordingly, when the piston 2 moves downwardly in thedirection of the arrow I6 (Fig. 1), the supplemental ring I4 contactsthe upper flange 9. When the piston 2 reverses its movement, thesupplemental ring I4 is caused to contact the lower flange II). Thisrelative movement, permitted by the clearance between the flanges 9 andIII, prevents the accretion of carbon. Furthermore, since the ringmember I4 has projections I'I entering into the slots I3 defined by theposts I2, these slots that form the oil passages are likewise free ofcarbon.

Preferably, the ring member I4 may be made of steel, or the like,expanding outwardly into contact with the cylinder wall I.

In the form shown in Figs. 1 to 4, inclusive, the ring structure isadapted to be used as an oil ring. In the form shown in Fig. 5, the ringstructure I8 is formed in a similar manner, but is intended for use as acompression ring. This ring structure includes the main ring member I9,having flanges 20 and 2| defining an uninterrupted groove or recess 22.This groove 22 *has an outward taper similar to that of groove II inFig. 1.

This main piston ring member is The auxiliary ring member 23 is similarto ring member l4, except that since there are no slots or openings inring member 19, and, therefore, there are no inwardly directedprojections on member 23.

In the form shown in Fig. 6, the piston 24 is shown as moving upwardly,as indicated by arrow 25. The main piston ring 29 has a recess or groove26 with parallel upper and lower flanges 21 and 28. The main ring member29 has a lower external surface 30 that slopes, the sloping being suchthat the thickness of the lower flange 3| increases as the periphery ofthe piston 24 is approached. A spacer ring 32 is interposed between thesurface 30 and the piston groove surface 34, and is so shaped as to bein contact with both of these surfaces.

In this way, it is assured that there can be an outward force constantlyurging ring 29 against the cylindrical surface I, in spite of wear onthe rings. A supplemental ring 35 is located in the recess 26. Itoperates in the same manner as the supplemental ring [4 of Fig. 1.

The inventor claims:

1. In a piston ring structure: a ring having a body portion and a flangeextending from the body portion forming a recess; said ring also havingan end surface defining with one side of the ring groove of the piston atapered annular space, the small portion of the tapered space being atthe outer periphery of the ring groove; a supplemental ring in saidrecess and substantially less in width than the recess; and a taperedring in contact with the groove and the end surface.

2. In a piston ring structure: a ring having a body portion adapted tofit into a ring groove in a piston; flanges at opposite ends of the bodyportion defining an annular recess; the opposed flange surfaces formingthe sides of the recess being tapered to form a space diverging towardthe periphery of the piston; and a supplemental ring having taperedsurfaces capable of contacting with the sides of the recess, andsubstantially less in width than the recess.

3. In a piston ring structure: a ring having a body portion and a flangeextending from the body portion, said flange having an end surfacedefining with one side of the ring groove a tapered annular space, thesmall portion of the tapered space being at the outer periphery of thering groove; and a tapered ring in contact with the groove and the endsurface.

4. In a piston ring structure: a ring having a body portion adapted tofit into a ring groove in a piston; flanges at opposite ends of the bodyportion defining an annular recess; the opposed flange surfaces formingthe sides of the recess being tapered to form a space diverging towardthe periphery of the piston; and a supplemental ring having taperedsurfaces capable of contacting with the sides of the recess, andsubstantially less in width than the recess; said tapered surfaces ofthe supplemental ring being symmetrically diverging toward the peripheryof the piston.

FRED ERNEST.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,298,548 Mummert et a1. Mar. 25,1919 1,951,959 Alexandrescu Mar. 20, 1934 2,443,065 Bowers June 8, 1948FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 475,698 Great Britain of 1937736,271 France of 1932

